Coconut Oil is Bad for the Heart, Report Says

A new report from the American Heart Association is saying that coconut oil in our diets might not be such a healthy idea as we thought. The Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease advisory has reportedly analyzed already existing research and data in what concerns saturated fats. Their conclusion was that coconut oil can raise the LDL or the “bad cholesterol” level in the organism. There have been seven clinical trials which have analyzed the effects of coconut oil in diet. They all had this exact same result.

Coconut oil, bad for the heart

It’s also worth noting that there is not much difference between coconut oil and other types of oil that are also high in saturated oils. For example, butter, beef fat or palm oil. According to the report, coconut oil has 82% saturated fat in it, while butter has about 63% and beef fat 50%. According to the recommendations of the American Health Association, people should not consume more than 6% of saturated fats each day. Moreover, the association is saying that people can replace saturated fats with vegetable oils, groundnut oil or corn oil. This way, they can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 30%. The same advisory is stating that coconut oil is increasing the LDL cholesterol in the body. This increases the risk of heart disease by a lot.

Frank Sacks, lead author on the report is saying that too many people mistakenly believe that coconut oil is healthy. This is completely wrong. In fact, it contains almost 100% fat. According to him, this idea might have been induced by some older weight loss studies. According to a survey, 72% of American adults think coconut oil is healthy, while 37% of nutritionists also agree with them.

Not as healthy as previously thought

Marie-Pierre St-Onge, associate professor of nutritional medicine at Cornell University Medical School says that she has also discovered that coconut oil contains high amounts of medium-chain triglycerides. According to studies, eating those triglycerides increases the rates of metabolism. This is actually the study which falsely promoted the idea that coconut oil might help reduce weight. The report advises to replace saturated fats with unsaturated or polyunsaturated ones. Those can reduce the risk of heart disease.